As Greater Boston's community foundation, the Boston Foundation is focused on the myriad of factors which make our city unique and successful. With an emphasis on strengthening this region's competitiveness in the global economy, the Foundation works with many partners to publish cutting edge research, hold public forums, and convene task forces of experts and stakeholders to create action agendas for real change.
The Foundation Board of Directors approved $810,000 in single and multi-year discretionary grants to 13 organizations in this cycle, along with $1.43 million in Open Door grants to 43 organizations, and acknowledged $2.2 million in grants paid out between cycles through other discretionary programs of the Foundation.
Read moreThe Boston Foundation today congratulates Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh on his nomination as the next U.S. Secretary of Labor, and the resulting historic milestone for Boston, when City Council President Kim Janey assumes the role of Acting Mayor – making her the first Black, and the first woman, to serve as Boston mayor.
Read moreThe Boston Foundation strongly condemns the acts of those who stormed the U.S. Capitol - and those who incited the violence.
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The Boston Foundation's Place Leadership Network convened eight teams of place leaders from 2019 to 2020 to strengthen their place-governance practices and to foster more creative, culturally vibrant, and equitable communities. Boston Foundation Design Fellow F. Philip Barash, who oversaw the program, wrote about the program's inception, what came of it and what comes next for place leadership in Boston.
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The Embrace Memorial, honoring Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King is moving forward in Boston, where they met and studied in the 1950s. King Boston, the privately funded organization coordinating the estimated $9.5 million project, said this week that fabrication of a roughly 22-foot-high bronze sculpture depicting four arms embracing is expected to begin in March after years of planning.
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Next year, the nation’s oldest public park, the Boston Common, will unveil one of the largest memorials in the country dedicated to racial justice: King Boston's “The Embrace" memorial, designed by the artist Hank Willis Thomas and architects at MASS Design Group. King Boston Executive Director Imari Paris Jeffries spoke to the New York Times about the significance of this memorial.
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Census estimates released last month show that Massachusetts actually lost people in the 12 months ending July 1, 2020, for the first time since 2005. And while Massachusetts' population grew by 5% from 2010-2020, Boston Indicators Director Luc Schuster says "if not for international migration, we actually would have [lost population].’’
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Greg Ball has been named Director of Embrace Ideas at King Boston. Ball said he aspires to create an environment that invites people with a diverse set of backgrounds and expertise to connect and carry out the work of King - from educators to artists to those working in criminal justice.
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The 2020 Boston Foundation Annual Report features 20 local leaders, making a difference each day through their work in what has been an unprecedented year for Boston and its people.
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The Boston Opportunity Agenda updates its annual look at the state of early education in Boston, and finds the COVID-19 pandemic has put even greater strain on the sector, reducing the number of available seats and putting current care and the future economic recovery at risk.
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The second edition of the Racial Equity Capacity Builders Directory provides information about more than 100 individuals and organizations that work with nonprofits to support organizational racial equity and DEI efforts.
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A new report from the Building Movement Project, sponsored by TBF and the Barr Foundation, uses a survey of more than 400 nonprofit leaders and employees and a series of focus groups conducted shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic to get perceptions and data on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the Massachusetts nonprofit sector.
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The end of 2020 was marked by the announcement of a new President and CEO for the Foundation, conversations with leaders across the U.S. about racial inequality and economic justice, and research that proposes bold solutions to intractable problems.